WOMAN INJURED AS PARTS OF WHEEL FALL ON HUT
Tezpur, May 19: A Sukhoi-30 fighter plane of the Indian Air Force (IAF) crashed at that the Su-30 fighter was on its way from Tezpur Salonibari air force station on a routine training sortie when the incident occurred. While the two pilots on the plane ejected safely, the aircraft crashed in a paddy field, injuring a woman.
The crew, Squadron Leader P. Kalra and Flight Lt A.K. Singh, were brought back to Tezpur airbase, about 12km from Tezpur town, by air force officials on a helicopter.
A court of inquiry had been ordered to investigate the cause of the accident, said Group Captain Amit Mahajan, (PRO) of the Eastern Air Command based at Shillong in Meghalaya.
The aircraft had taken off at 12.17pm from the Tezpur air base. The site of the crash was, as the crow flies, about 36km south of Tezpur, while it is about 107km by road. Tezpur is located 180km east of Guwahati.
Today's was the first crash of a Su-30 fighter in Assam after they were first brought to the Tezpur air base on June 15, 2009. The Sukhois are detailed to fly on the international border with China along eastern and western Arunachal Pradesh, sources said.
Former IAF vice-chief Air Marshal P.K. Barbora, during whose tenure the Sukhois were inducted at Tezpur, today said while the Su-30MKI was a state-of-the-art fighter jet, it had been plagued by engine trouble. There are also issues with the serviceability of the aircraft compared to Mirage 2000, he said. "But the good thing is that it has two engines," he told The Telegraph over phone from New Delhi.
"It is true that we have lost around six Sukhoi-30MKIs but we should also take into account that we are flying Sukhois for close to 20 years and the quantum of flying is also very high. There may be minor glitches here and there but it is a fantastic aircraft," said Barbora, a fighter pilot who has flown over 3,500 hours, including the Sukhoi.
Asked whether the aircraft was suitable to patrol the hilly terrain along the India-China border in the northeastern region of the country, Barbora said, "There is no other better option. We had inducted it here as it is the country's frontline fighter aircraft. Our deployment is based on analysis of the threat perception and Sukhois had to be inducted in the east since our fleet of modern aircraft in this sector had badly depleted."
While, unlike Jaguar fighter aircraft, the Sukhoi was not a deep penetration strike aircraft, "it has a multi-role capability. It is an air defence aircraft and also a strike aircraft. It can perform both the roles equally well and can also carry a lot of armament, including bombs and air-to-air missiles," Barbora said.
The last crash of the Sukhoi was at Lohegaon near Pune on October 14, 2014. In that too, the crew- the pilot and the weapons systems operator - had ejected. A court of inquiry that investigated the reasons of that crash has submitted its report but, according to IAF sources, "the issue remains unresolved".
An aircraft accident investigation board was also studying the reasons for today's crash, the sources said. The IAF would take a call on whether to, and for how long, ground the Sukhoi fleet after a preliminary study. Usually, a technical snag leads to the fleet being grounded temporarily to carry out checks in all aircraft.
The Sukhoi, now assembled in India by defence public sector Hindustan Aeronautics for about Rs 300 crore per aircraft, has a serviceability ratio of about 54 per cent, meaning that a little more than half the fleet of about 200 is available at all times.
Additional reporting by Sujan Dutta in New Delhi
